Muscle protein controls length and manner of sleep

Contrary to the widely accepted notion that brain controls sleep a new study claims that a protein in the muscle can lessen the effect of sleep loss in mice and this study did not found any direct link between brain and the time span for which one sleeps.

Study author Dr. Joseph S. Takahashi from UT Southwestern Medical Center said that findings of this report are completely strange and might change the perspective of the people regarding sleep.

The research demonstrates how a circadian clock protein in the muscle – BMAL1 – regulates the length and manner of sleep and the result indicated that mice with higher levels of BMAL 1 in their muscles take proper sleep without any disruption and on the other hand removing BMAL1 from the muscle severely disrupted normal sleep.

Dr. Takahashi one of the researchers went on to say: “These studies show that factors in muscles can signal to the brain to influence sleep. If similar pathways exist in people, this would provide new drug targets for the treatment of sleep disorders.”